Seven Things You Shouldn't Assume About Sleep

Health & Medical Blog

It's important to get enough sleep to optimize your health. Many individuals make inaccurate assumptions about sleep that discourage them from getting the sleep clinic treatment they need when struggling with issues like insomnia.

The following are seven things you shouldn't assume about sleep. 

Your body can adjust to reduced sleep time.

There's no getting around the fact that adults need at least seven hours of sleep per night to function optimally. Your body is not going to need less sleep once you adjust to getting fewer hours of shut-eye. The truth is that your body never gets used to inadequate sleep and simply suffers as a result. 

There's nothing doctors and therapists can do to help patients sleep other than prescribe sleep aids.

Sleep clinic treatment goes far beyond merely prescribing sleep aid medication. If you don't want to go to a sleep clinic because you don't want to take medication, you should know that there are many other options you can try with sleep clinic treatment. 

Some people can function normally on only a few hours of sleep per night.

Many people think that some individuals need less sleep than others. While there may be some minor variation in terms of how much sleep individuals need, no one requires significantly fewer hours of sleep per night to function optimally. Getting the recommended amount of sleep is important for everyone.  

The time of day when you sleep isn't important.

Some people develop the habit of sleeping during the day and staying up at night because they assume it doesn't matter what time of day they sleep.

In fact, we are programmed to sleep at night due to our circadian rhythm. If you do not have a job that requires you to work at night, it's always best to sleep at night rather than during the day. 

Sleep quality doesn't impact your weight.

Not sleeping enough can increase an individual's appetite so that he or she eats more. This can make it so that not getting enough sleep causes weight gain. 

You can get enough rest simply lying in bed with your eyes closed.

Unfortunately, lying in bed with your eyes closed is not as good for your body as actually sleeping. Not being able to actually fall asleep is therefore a problem. The time you spend lying down with your eyes closed doesn't count toward your sleep requirements every night when it comes to your health. 

Watching TV in bed can help you fall asleep.

It's a bad habit to watch TV before bed or to watch TV when you can't sleep. The blue light that's emitted by television screens and other types of screens has a tendency to make it more difficult to fall asleep. 

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26 January 2022

Help Others Make Health Decisions when They Cannot

One day I was playing a game of basketball with a friend, and the friend I was playing ball with tripped and took a hard fall to the ground. He hit his head hard, but he insisted he was okay and just wanted to go home and take a nap. I knew in my heart that he was not thinking clearly, and I didn't feel right letting him go home. I talked him into letting me take him to the hospital, and after some tests, it was determined he had a bad concussion. The doctors told me that if I had let him go home and sleep, things could have taken a turn for the worse. I created this blog to remind everyone to look out for each other after injuries. Not everyone thinks clearly after a head injury, and just being a good friend could save a life.